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Tuesdays case count continues a trend of declining infection numbers after a peak in November and early December that caused officials to worry about hospital capacity. On Monday, the daily case count fell into the double digits for the first time since September.
Still, despite the decreasing case numbers, Alaska remains in the highest alert category based on its current per capita rate of infection.
Hospitalizations have also continued to fall, and are now about a third of where they were during the states peak in November and December. By Tuesday, there were 56 people with COVID-19 in hospitals throughout the state. One other patient was suspected of having the virus. Five COVID-positive people were on ventilators.
Health care workers and nursing home staff and residents were the first people to receive the vaccination. In early January, the state said adults older than 65 were now eligible, although appointment slots are limited and have filled quickly.
New vaccine appointments for the month of February will go live on the states vaccination website (covidvax.alaska.gov) beginning on Thursday at noon.
The number of available appointments are determined by how much vaccine the state receives in February and are open to adults 65 and older. The new appointments will begin on Feb. 4.
For more information about vaccination appointments, visit covidvax.alaska.gov or call 907-646-3322 and leave a message. A recording says calls will be returned in the order theyre received within 48 hours, but some users have reported longer delays. State officials said beginning this week, those calls will be answered live.
Of the 86 cases reported in Alaska residents on Tuesday, there were 20 in Anchorage plus one in Chugiak and three in Eagle River; one in Homer; one in Seward; one in Soldotna; one in Cordova; seven in Fairbanks; one in North Pole; one in Big Lake; four in Palmer; two in Sutton-Alpine; 12 in Wasilla; one in Kotzebue; one in Haines; five in Juneau; two in Unalaska; and four in Bethel.
Among communities with populations under 1,000 people not named to protect privacy, there was one in the Nome Census Area; one in the Prince of Wales and Hyder Census Area; 11 in the Bethel Census Area; and five in the Kusilvak Census Area.
Three cases were reported in nonresidents in Unalaska.
While people might get tested more than once, each case reported by the state health department represents only one person.
The states data doesnt specify whether people testing positive for COVID-19 have symptoms. More than half of the nations infections are transmitted from asymptomatic people, according to CDC estimates.
Over the past week, 3.07% of all tests completed statewide came back positive.
Press Releases
01/26/2021
(HARTFORD, CT) Governor Ned Lamont today announced that he has signed a declaration extending Connecticuts state of emergency in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to April 20, 2021. The extension applies to both the civil preparedness emergency and the public health emergency.
The governor originally declared the emergencies on March 10, 2020, explaining that they were needed in order to enable the state to provide its residents with an adequate response to the pandemic. Initially, they were scheduled to expire on September 9, 2020, however due to the ongoing nature of the pandemic they were renewed late in the summer and given a new expiration date of February 9, 2021.
Governor Lamont said that while the recent development of several vaccines provide great hope that the pandemic will soon be under control, the virus continues to rapidly spread and emergency measures are still needed to help mitigate its impact. Ending them now, he said, would pull a safety net from under the citizens of Connecticut.
The people of Connecticut are to be commended for their actions to prevent the further spread of this virus, and I truly believe that the steps theyve taken have made an impact, Governor Lamont said. That said, the virus is not going to suddenly end on February 9, and to eliminate all of these preventative measures on that day would be irresponsible and in many cases life threatening. Our administration remains committed to working in collaboration with the legislature on these emergency orders as weve done throughout this pandemic so that we can provide the best protocols needed to protect the residents of our state.
**Download: Governor Lamonts declaration extending the COVID-19 civil preparedness and public health emergencies through April 20, 2021
TAMPA (WFLA) Florida ranks fifth in the nation in states with the least restrictive COVID-19 regulations, according to a study done by the personal finance site,Wallethub.
To identify which states have the fewest coronavirus restrictions, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 14 key metrics, stated the company in a press release. Our data set ranges from whether restaurants are open to whether the state has required face masks in public and workplace temperature screenings.
The only states with the less COVID-19 restrictions then Florida are Oklahoma, South Dakota, Iowa and Arkansas.
According to Wallethubs previous study on Oct. 6, the state has jumped six spots.
The states with the most coronavirus restrictions are California, Virginia, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, and New Mexico.
Florida reopened in September. In addition, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an order which barred local governments from adopting and enforcing restrictions they saw fit.A group of Florida mayors, including St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, lobbied late last year to rescind that, or in the very least,adopt a statewide mask mandate which Gov. DeSantis has strongly opposed.
Story
Gov. Jay Inslee today updated the guidance documents in Proclamation 20-66 for long-term care facilities.
Modifications include updated and additional resources; standardized community case rates related to moving between COVID phases; and enhanced guidance regarding compassionate care visitation, essential support persons visitation and outbreaks visitation.
The updates are effective as of Feb. 1.
Find the updated proclamation here.
Public and constituent inquiries | 360.902.4111Press inquiries | 360.902.4136
Organizers hope to inoculate at least 1,000 teachers and staff each day
by: Gerry Ricciutti
CANFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) As Ohio works its way through the COVID-19 vaccination process, thousands of teachers and school staff will get their turns to roll up their sleeves next week.
In Mahoning County, instructors were able to choose between getting their shots at Giant Eagle pharmacies in the area or from one of three clinics scheduled next week for schools that work with the Mahoning County Educational Service Center in Canfield.
Giant Eagle is not taking phone calls for the COVID vaccine. You must register online.
Mahoning County Educational Service Center Superintendent Traci Hostetler said teachers did have to sign up for the clinic they want to use.
Theres going to be a registration table, and again, the staff will report at their designated times. Theyre going to have to stand, masked, six feet apart. Theyre to bring the insurance cards and some paperwork that all should have by now, Hostetler said.
The three clinics will be held next Tuesday at Canfield High School, Wednesday at Boardman, and on Thursday at Columbiana.
Organizers hope to inoculate at least 1,000 teachers and staff each day.
Alex DeBrincat and Adam Boqvist will miss certainly two weeks, potentially more, after being put on the NHLs COVID-19 protocol list Monday.
Coach Jeremy Colliton implied but didnt state that one or both tested positive.
Theres an NHL protocol [that is] very clear as far as how things are going to go and making sure anyone who is high-risk is dealt with, Colliton said. Thats where were at. Well continue to test every day.
The Hawks will look to compensate in the coming weeks with a next-man-up mentality.
Forward Matthew Highmore replaced DeBrincat and defenseman Lucas Carlsson replaced Boqvist in the lineup against the Predators.
We have enough guys and enough depth to step up, forward Ryan Carpenter said. Those are two big, important pieces for us, but right now were just focusing on whoevers coming in.
From a broader health sense, though, the Hawks are hoping the virus wont turn out to have spread beyond DeBrincat and Boqvist.
Per NHL rules, everyone else must have tested negative in order to travel Monday and play Tuesday. And the Hawks arent the only team dealing with this: 21 players on seven teams are on the COVID-19 list.
But the uncertainty remains scary for the group.
Across the league, were understanding that things are delicate, Colliton said.
We have to do everything we can to try to limit the spread, keep it out to begin with. And if it does get inside your walls, do everything you can to stop it from spreading. But were not going to know.
RICHMOND, Va. (WAVY) 10 On Your Side has confirmed Gov. Ralph Northam will hold a news conference Wednesday with an update on Virginias COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The briefing is scheduled for 2 p.m. and will be available to view on WAVY TV 10, WAVY.com and on Facebook.
The governors administration has faced heavy criticism for the sluggish rollout of the vaccine. Press secretary Alena Yarmosky told 10 On Your Side Tuesday they point to three factors for the difficulties.
Yarmosky said Virginia is close to meeting the governors goal of 25,000 shots per day, which is more than twice as many as were being distributed two weeks ago.
The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) COVID-19 vaccine dashboard shows, as of Jan. 26, an average of 24,790 doses a day.
During Wednesdays briefing, the governor is expected to outline steps his administration is taking to improve the vaccine distribution efforts.
Stay with WAVY.com for updates.
Get the free WAVY News App, available for download in the App Store and Google Play, to stay up to date with all your local news, weather and sports, live newscasts and other live events.
For Immediate Release: January 26, 2021
Espaol
As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations continuing efforts to protect consumers from potentially dangerous or subpotent hand sanitizers, the agency has placed all alcohol-based hand sanitizers from Mexico on a countrywide import alert to help stop products that appear to be in violation from entering the U.S. until the agency is able to review the products safety. Over the course of the ongoing pandemic, the agency has seen a sharp increase in hand sanitizer products from Mexico that were labeled to contain ethanol (also known as ethyl alcohol) but tested positive for methanol contamination. Methanol, or wood alcohol, is a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through the skin and life-threatening when ingested. Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient in hand sanitizer or other drugs.
Under the import alert, alcohol-based hand sanitizers from Mexico offered for import are subject to heightened FDA scrutiny, and FDA staff may detain the shipment. As part of their entry review, FDA staff will consider any specific evidence offered by importers or manufacturers that the hand sanitizers were manufactured according to U.S. current good manufacturing practice requirements. This marks the first time the FDA has issued a countrywide import alert for any category of drug product.
"Consumer use of hand sanitizers has increased significantly during the coronavirus pandemic, especially when soap and water are not accessible, and the availability of poor-quality products with dangerous and unacceptable ingredients will not be tolerated," said Judy McMeekin, Pharm.D., FDA Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs. Todays actions are necessary to protect the safe supply of alcohol-based hand sanitizers. We will continue to work with our stakeholders to ensure the availability of safe products and to communicate vital information with the health and safety of U.S. consumers in mind.
The FDAs analyses of alcohol-based hand sanitizers imported from Mexico found 84% of the samples analyzed by the agency from April through December 2020 were not in compliance with the FDAs regulations. More than half of the samples were found to contain toxic ingredients, including methanol and/or 1-propanol, at dangerous levels. The agency has posted and regularly updates a list of hand sanitizer products that consumers should not use, which include those that FDA has found to contain methanol and/or 1-propanol. In most cases, methanol does not appear as an ingredient on the product label.
The agency continues to take action to help prevent potentially dangerous or violative hand sanitizers from entering the United States by placing specific products on import alert, proactively working with companies to recall products and encouraging retailers to remove violative products from store shelves and online marketplaces. As part of these actions, the agency has also issued 14 warning letters since July 2020 for distributing hand sanitizer with undeclared methanol, inappropriate ethanol content, misleading claimsincluding incorrectly stating FDA approvaland improper manufacturing practices. The FDA continues to proactively work with Mexican government authorities, manufacturers and retailers to ensure potentially dangerous or violative products are not distributed to consumers.
The agency reminds manufacturers, distributors, repackagers and importers they are responsible for the quality of their products and urges manufacturers to test their raw ingredients to ensure they meet labeling specifications and are free from harmful contamination. The FDA recently issued a guidance outlining the agencys policy for drug manufacturers and compounders to test alcohol or isopropyl alcohol for methanol contamination prior to using the alcohol to produce drugs, including hand sanitizer products.
Methanol-contaminated hand sanitizers are a serious safety concern, and the FDA is aware of adverse events, including blindness, cardiac effects, effects on the central nervous system and hospitalizations and death, primarily reported to poison control centers and state departments of health. Methanol exposure can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death. Although people using these products on their hands are at risk for methanol poisoning, young children who ingest these products and adolescents and adults who drink these products as an alcohol substitute are most at risk.
Consumers who have been exposed to hand sanitizer contaminated with methanol and are experiencing symptoms should contact their local poison control center and seek immediate medical treatment for potential reversal of the toxic effects of methanol poisoning. The FDA encourages health care professionals, consumers and patients to report adverse events or quality problems experienced with the use of hand sanitizers to FDAs MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program (please provide the agency with as much information to identify the product as possible). For more information, consumers should refer to the FDAs guidelines on safe use of hand sanitizer as well as a question and answer page.
Need help now? Call 9-1-1 if the person is unconscious or has trouble breathing. Call Poison Help at 800-222-1222 to connect to your local poison center. Learn more at https://poisonhelp.hrsa.gov/.
The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nations food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.
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By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Jan. 26, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Middle-aged folks' risk of dying from a COVID-19 infection is higher than they might think, a new study reports.
The risk of death from COVID increases with age, but researchers have found that the upward curve grows exponentially steeper with every extra decade.
One out of every 800 people entering early middle age at 45 will die from their COVID infection, 55-year-olds have a 1 in 240 risk of dying if they contract the coronavirus, and 65-year-olds have a 1 in 70 chance, said lead researcher Andrew Levin, a professor of economics at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.
By comparison, people who are 25 have a 1 in 10,000 risk of dying from COVID, and 35-year-olds have a 1 in 2,700 chance, Levin said.
"This isn't just dangerous for elderly people in nursing homes," Levin said. "COVID gets progressively more and more dangerous, even in middle age."
The new numbers come from a systematic review of all available studies of COVID-19 incidence in countries with advanced economies, and are based specifically on data from 27 studies covering locations in the United States, Canada, Asia and Europe.
"Risk increases as age increases, and even those who are in middle age have a substantial [death] risk that they should account for when making risk calculations regarding the virus," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore. He is not connected to the study.
The new analysis found that a middle-aged American's risk of death from a COVID-19 infection is many times greater than their risk of dying in a car crash, Levin added.
People between 45 and 55 die nearly 18 times more often from COVID-19 than from an auto wreck, according to the study, while those aged 55 to 64 are almost 58 times more likely to die from a COVID infection than a crash.
Middle-aged people should keep this in mind when deciding whether to slip on a mask, wash their hands or practice social distancing, said Dr. Abhijit Duggal, a critical care doctor with the Cleveland Clinic.
"The risk is there," said Duggal, who wasn't part of the study. "It's not just older folks that really are going to have a high risk of dying from this disease process. Middle-aged people do, too."
Duggal added that while this study solely looked at the risk of death from COVID, the coronavirus also can damage the body in ways that could potentially lead to years of suffering for survivors.
"Death is not the only bad outcome associated with the COVID-19 pandemic," Duggal said. "If someone develops chronic lung disease at the age of 40 because they were exposed to this virus, their life for the next 20 to 30 years is going to be negatively impacted. So absolutely, we have to be very mindful that we're not reckless."
That also goes for younger people who might spread COVID to a more vulnerable middle-aged or older person, Levin added.
"There is a real responsibility here for a high school student whose parents may be in their 40s or 50s to be careful not to get it, not to just treat it like, "Oh well, I'm safe,'" Levin said. "If it's a 41-year-old with two kids who gets COVID and you think you might be the one who gave it to him, that would be awful to think about."
The study was published recently in the European Journal of Epidemiology.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have more about groups at increased risk from COVID-19.
SOURCES: Andrew Levin, PhD, professor, economics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.; Amesh Adalja, MD, senior scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Baltimore; Abhijit Duggal, MD, critical care doctor, Cleveland Clinic; European Journal of Epidemiology, Dec. 8, 2020
WebMD News from HealthDay
Pagination
The coronavirus vaccine helps protect you from getting COVID-19. It can also prevent you from having the long-lasting health problems experienced by some COVID-19 patients, or COVID-19 long haulers.
As with all vaccines, you may have some side effects, such as pain or swelling at the site of the injection, fever, chills, tiredness, or headache.
Dr. David J. Cennimo, an infectious disease physician and assistant professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, said these are signs of an appropriate recognition and immune reaction to the vaccine.
The side effects show that the vaccine is teaching your immune system how to recognize and attack SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, if it encounters it.
Although some of the vaccine side effects are similar to the symptoms of COVID-19, the coronavirus vaccines wont give you COVID-19. The vaccines will also not make you contagious.
For most people, the side effects of the vaccine are mild or moderate and last only a day or two. However, for some people the side effects make them feel like they have the flu, or affect their ability to perform daily activities.
Faced with a couple of days of flu-like discomfort, many people including physicians will reach for an over-the-counter medication such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or acetaminophen (Tylenol) to relieve their fever and pain.
But if these drugs reduce the side effects of the vaccine, is there a chance that theyll also depress the immune systems beneficial response to vaccination?
No research has been done to look specifically at whether acetaminophen or ibuprofen can interfere with how well the coronavirus vaccine works.
But Cennimo said some earlier research suggests that some drugs may affect the immune response to vaccines.
There are data in the vaccine literature, long predating COVID-19 and almost all [done] in children, that premedication with [fever-reducing drugs] like acetaminophen or ibuprofen decrease the antibody response to the first dose of vaccine, Cennimo said.
Parents would sometimes give their child a pain reliever before their vaccine injection to head off the discomfort.
Cennimo said its not known how these medications interfere with vaccines, but the drugs may dampen the inflammatory response which shows up as fever and aches.
With less inflammation, he said, there may also be a lower immune response to the vaccine.
More recently, a study published this month in the Journal of Virology found that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) which include ibuprofen reduced the production of antibodies and other aspects of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2.
Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system to fight viruses like SARS-CoV-2. The COVID-19 vaccines stimulate the body to produce antibodies that specifically target the coronavirus without causing disease.
The authors of this study said that this raises the possibility that NSAIDs might also affect the immune response to coronavirus vaccination. But additional studies would be needed to know for certain.
Some earlier research in the laboratory suggests that fever-reducing pain medications may blunt the antibody response to vaccination, but its not clear what this means in the real world.
Cennimo said the pre-COVID-19 research in children found that taking a fever-reducing drug only affected the production of antibodies if the drug was taken before the injection.
More research is needed, of course. But COVID-19 vaccine studies that have already been done suggest that taking a pain reliever after injection, if needed, may not cause that much of a problem.
The protocols for the late-stage clinical trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna-NIAID coronavirus vaccines didnt prevent people from taking pain-relieving medications if they felt they needed it.
Even with that, those studies still showed that both vaccines have a high efficacy rate: 95 percent for Pfizer-BioNTech and 94.1 percent for Moderna-NIAID.
In spite of the need for more data, Cennimo doesnt think theres a problem with taking ibuprofen or acetaminophen after your coronavirus vaccine injection, as long as you dont exceed the recommended amount.
He had his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine last week and took ibuprofen afterwards for a low-grade fever and some aches.
As for whether you should try to preempt your vaccine side effects with a pain reliever, Cennimo advises against it.
In the COVID-19 vaccine trials, people were not given an NSAID or acetaminophen before the injection, so we do not know what if any effect premedication would have, he said. Because of these theoretical risks, it is not advised.
Dr. Sherrill Brown, medical director of infection prevention at AltaMed Health Services, a federally qualified healthcare center serving Los Angeles and Orange counties in California, agrees.
I would recommend waiting until someone experiences side effects of fever or pain that require fever-reducing or pain-reducing medications, she said, and not to take them as a prophylaxis to prevent vaccine related symptoms.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued similar guidelines for how to deal with the side effects of the two mRNA vaccines that have been approved in the United States.
Brown also cautions that even over-the-counter pain relievers may not be appropriate for everyone.
Some people are not able to take either acetaminophen or ibuprofen due to other underlying health conditions, she said. In those cases, it would be best to consult with their trusted healthcare provider or physician before taking these medications.
If you cant take pain relievers, or you would like to avoid taking them after your coronavirus vaccine injection, there are other ways to relieve vaccination side effects.
To reduce pain and discomfort at the site of injection, apply a cool, wet washcloth over the area to reduce the swelling. Gently exercising the arm also increases blood flow to the area which can provide additional relief.
For fever, drink plenty of fluids, wear light pajamas or clothing, sponge your body with lukewarm (not cold) water, and eat popsicles. And of course, rest.
If your fever lasts longer than 3 days, or reaches 103F (39C) or higher, seek medical care. Seek treatment right away if you develop a rash, difficulty breathing, or chest or abdominal pain.
